Provided by Institute of Education EPrints
Skill and work experience in the European knowledge
economy.
Introduction.
One of most common interpretations of the global economic and technological changes
which have been taking place since the mid 1980s is that they herald the emergence of
a ‘knowledge economy’ and a growth in ‘knowledge work’ and high skill employment
(OECD 1996; ILO 1998). Moreover, a parallel assumption has been that a ‘knowledge
economy’ is dependent upon education and training and, that there is a positive link
between investment in education and training, economic growth and employability
(Green et al 1999; OECD 1998). By and large, this assumption covers all areas of
economic competitiveness, e.g., individual, the locality/region, firm, sector and nation
state.
EU policy has, for some time, stressed the need for closer links to be established
between education and the world of work to enable students to broaden the basis of
their skill development and, hence, their future employability (Green et al 1997).
Amongst other matters, policy makers have affirmed the important role of education
business partnership activity as a strategy for fostering such links. Attention has
focused in particular upon the role of work experience in general education and
vocational education and training (VET), work experience being an example of one
type of education-business partnership activity that is undertaken throughout Europe
(Griffiths et al 2001). Work experience has been perceived by policymakers as
providing an opportunity for students to achieve two objectives: to develop their
economic and industrial understanding and, to support their future employability by
developing generic skills (i.e. key skills, transferable skills) that are needed to work in
the ‘knowledge economy’.